Reports recently surfaced that Microsoft and Machinima recently ran a promotion that offered Youtube video creators money to positively mention the Xbox One, causing a mild uproar that the companies did not disclose the agreement and violated FCC guidelines. Now both companies have commented on the controversy, and it appears that publisher EA may also use this strategy, according to a new report. 

Microsoft claims the compant did not know that Machinima was running this promotion and has asked Machinima to not run similar promotions in the future.

"Microsoft was not aware of individual contracts Machinima had with their content providers as part of this promotion and we didn't provide feedback on any of the videos. We have asked Machinima to not post any additional Xbox One content as part of this media buy and we have asked them to add disclaimers to the videos that were part of this program indicating they were part of paid advertising," Microsoft said in a statement, according to IGN. 

Machinima took full responsibility for the promotion and called it a fairly common practice for media companies.

"This partnership between Machinima and Microsoft was a typical marketing partnership to promote Xbox One in December. The Xbox team does not review any specific content or provide feedback on content. Any confidentiality provisions, terms or other guidelines are standard documents provided by Machinima. For clarity, confidentiality relates to the agreements themselves, not the existence of the promotion," wrote Machinima in a statement. 

While this story continues to develop, another similar story has surfaced with EA as the culprit. A NeoGAF post shows images of EA offering Youtube users money for featuring games such as Need for Speed Rivals, Battlefield 4, and others. The agreement required users to upload videos from certain platforms and not feature major bugs or other issues in the videos. While Machinima only offered $3 per 1,000 views—and capped the deal after a video reached 1.25 million views—EA offered more money and more page views in their promotion. EA offered users $10 per 1,000 views, and each game had a different cap for views. Need for Speed Rivals had a cap of 6 million views, and Battlefield 4's promotion had a cap of 20 million views.

This EA promotion also prevented users from disclosing that they were getting paid to positively mention these products, which violates FCC guidelines that state that such agreements must be publicly disclosed. It will be interesting to see if some Youtube personalities admit they received money from different video game companies in the wake of these reports.